Popular Fund for Land and Housing for Latin America and the Caribbean
Countries in the region should have an independent vision and policy that is decomposed into concrete lines of action. One of them must be the creation of a Popular Fund for Land and Housing for AL/C.
To fulfill these objectives, we will be publish in this space articles and we will promote dialogue and interactive debates, suggesting topics, encouraging initiatives to raise ideas and solutions. Join us!
In 2005 56 million Latin American and Caribbean families were living under precarious situations in inadequate housing, built with inappropriate materials, located in areas at risk or in danger of eviction. Each year this deficit rises by 1.5 million until now when countries have found an effective solution to a problem that, by default, has become increasingly unmanageable.
After 20 years of enforcement, the public policies were based under the assumption that private capital can be placed at the forefront of a solution if the state subsidizes either through supply or demand, is proven unworkable and the city turns into a jungle where the only rule governing growth is through urban speculation. As a result, people are forced every year to occupy public land or resort to the informal market for housing with little planning, which ultimately, in the long run, prove more expensive than a conventional home.
Despite the initiatives and experiences that prove there are possible solutions available to the problem of housing which are in the process of launching and in the first instance, values a property not as a business gain for a few private business partners, but as a fundamental human right and a development opportunity for the country in which the states must have a greater stake in proactive participation.
Given these considerations, the International Alliance of Inhabitants has proposed to carry out a process of rigorous reflection which allows finding solutions collectively to the housing problem from a majority people's interests standpoint. In this perspective, between 2007 and 2009 an initial study was conducted into the housing problems in Peru and in the Dominican Republic which concluded a guidelines proposal to implement a Popular Fund for Land and Housing within these countries. And from 2010 a second study was commissioned to analyze the housing problem in other countries within the region, with the following objectives: a) To enhance the discussions, proposals and the preparation process for the World Assembly of Inhabitants 2011; b) Contribute to the design of a proposed program to strengthen the struggle of social movements and c) Design a specific policy proposal likely to be converted into programs within LA/C. Countries in the region should have an independent vision and policy that is decomposed into concrete lines of action. One of them must be the creation of a Popular Fund for Land and Housing for AL/C.
To fulfill these objectives, we will be publish in this space every month the progress of this and other studies and promote dialogue and interactive debates, suggesting topics, encouraging initiatives to raise ideas and solutions. Initiatives which take active involvement from inhabitants’ organizations, academics and institutions that share these principles. Similar to the provision of support material, IAI provides a virtual library allowing users to download useful documents for information, study and debate purposes.
Georeferences
The Volunteer translator for housing rights without frontiers of IAI who has collaborated on the translation of this text was: